Tag Archives: Architecture

At Home With Jimmy Carter and Don DeLillo

I read White Noise recently and noticed by chance that Picador have bizarrely just published a 40th anniversary edition of Don DeLillo’s book, although it was first published in 1985. Perhaps it is the accumulated prescience of the book that … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Design, Uncategorized, Urbanism | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Souvenirs For Buildings That Don’t Exist

There is a moment in Superman III

Posted in Architecture, Design, Old Things | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Pompidou Centre Inside Battersea Power Station

Posted in Architecture, Engineering, Old Things, Urbanism | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

When Doves Fry

A plan to ban fireworks from the Opening Ceremony of the games, prompted IOC President Jacques Rogge into prolonged reminiscence about a salutary tale from the annals of Olympic history. Rogge, one of the rare members of the IOC to … Continue reading

Posted in 2012, Media, Pageantry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Cathedral Dedicated to Excrement

As London’s sewer system accepts into its gaping maw a huge autumnal deluge, it is worth sparing a thought for those who created it. The Metropolitan Board of Works was created in 1855 to improve the cities infrastructure ‘under the … Continue reading

Posted in 2012, Architecture, Engineering | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Northern Seascapes

Posted in Architecture, Engineering | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Ruskin in Venice

The years that John Ruskin spent in Venice are no longer just an important biographical fact about an eminent art Victorian critic. They have become a narrative prism through which to assess architecture’s role in contemporary society. This month the … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Old Things | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Empire State of Mind

I re-read JG Ballard’s Empire of the Sun recently. This was at the same time that I was getting sent beautiful shots of pavilions from the Shanghai Expo, and then writing about it in some kind of historical context. At … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Urbanism | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Not Learning From Learning From Las Vegas

The exhibition What We Learned at Yale and the 3-day symposium Architecture After Las Vegas prompted a predictable degree of puffery from those media-friendly, Po-Mo apologists over at FAT.  Sean Griffiths review in Building Design was generally a list of … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A drop in the ocean

In July 2007, Hilary Clinton, then a candidate for US President proposed a no-flight zone over Darfur, to prevent the Sudanese government from bombing their own citizens. It was an attempt to call to a halt what has been described … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Engineering | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment